For the first time in five years, the leader of the elusive Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL or ISIS), Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi has appeared in a propaganda video. In the 18-minute video released by the armed group, Al-Baghdadi acknowledges the defeat of the terror group in the battle
In April, the Solomon Islands held its first general election since the withdrawal of the Australia-led Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI), an event which can be considered a tentative step forward for democracy in the country. While Solomon Islanders went to the polls on 3 April, it was
On Tuesday, May 14th, Niger soldiers running a routine military patrol were ambushed, with search operations beginning directly afterwards for missing soldiers who were involved. The initial attack involved 52 soldiers who were in the patrol, and when they came across a group of heavily armed soldiers, were forced into
An accumulation of 414 million pieces of plastic has been uncovered on the shores of the Cocos Islands in the Indian Ocean. The island group is located 2100 km off the north-western coast of Australia, with a population of 600. Plastic and debris weighing up to 238 tonnes were found
On May 15th, a Colombian tribunal issued a court order calling for an end to the detainment of Seuxis Hernández, formerly a commander for the FARC rebel group (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). However, the Attorney General’s office’s assertion that new evidence had been uncovered which contributed to Hernández’s drug
The Kutupalong-Balukhali refugee camp in Bangladesh, more widely known by the anglicised name of its nearest town, Cox’s Bazar, is currently the world’s largest refugee camp. It is thought that over 1 million Rohingya Muslims currently live there, having fled persecution in their native state of Rakhine in Myanmar. Alongside
In 1999, eight tourists were brutally murdered in a violent attack involving machetes and axes while gorilla-watching in a Ugandan rainforest. The group included two New Zealanders, Michelle Strathern and Rhonda Avis, as well as two Americans and four others. Three Rwandan men belonging to the Hutu rebel group, the
Four commercial ships have been damaged off the coast of the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), heightening existing regional tensions between the United States (U.S.) and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme. Emirati officials reported the attacks on Sunday, May 12th, and had occurred near the port of Fujairah, one of the
As of February, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kim Song, has officially declared a food crisis in the wake of its worst drought in almost four decades and has requested urgent foreign aid for the 40% of North Koreans who are facing “severe food shortages,” many of whom
The westernmost region of China, officially known as Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, has drawn international attention in recent years for the severity of ethnic and religious policies implemented there by the central government of the People’s Republic of China. In particular, the Uyghur ethnic group, Turkic-speaking Muslims who have been
With the increase in school shootings throughout the United States over the last several years and the growing movement of students and parents standing up against gun violence, politicians are trying to catch up. On Wednesday 8 May, Florida’s Republican Governor Ron DeSantis signed a controversial Senate Bill just a
On Friday, May 10th, over 65 migrants died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea as their boat capsized off the coast of Tunisia. In a statement, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) stressed that the deaths highlighted the ongoing surge of migrant deaths at sea, amounting to nearly 900 people in
After fighting Nauru’s Waqa government for the past 5 years, ex-president Sprent Dabwido has passed away, leaving the remaining members of the Nauru 19 leaderless as they await their appeal decision. Dabwido served as President of Nauru between 2011-2013 and signed the controversial deal with then Australian Prime Minister Julia
